The Things Men Get Away With

By now, everybody knows about the harassment accusations against Ali Zafar. Some have taken sides as if it is a regular dispute between two celebrities and not about the rights of women. Some think that just because Ali Zafar cried on national TV, he is innocent. Aren't we the same people who accuse women of using tears to win arguments?

In our society, men get away with a lot of things. They beat their wives, force their young daughters to get married, touch and grope women on the streets, try to make women uncomfortable with their constant staring, molest and rape children and women, and all we have to say at the end of the day is that men will be men. A woman cannot even take a step out of her house without being told of her sins and how she will end up in hell. What happens to our religion when it comes to the wrongdoings of men?

The question in our society isn't what men can get away with, because the list is far too long to be mentioned here, but the question is why men get away with everything. For a second, let's assume that Ali Zafar is innocent, why in our society a man can take a jab at a child who was shot in her head? Why can a man insinuate that he had "better options" available in Bollywood and therefore had no reason to harass Meesha Shafi? The reason he can get away with all of this and still have people support him is simple: the majority of our people have the same thinking. People on Twitter have been tweeting in Ali Zafar's favor and saying similar things.

When vile thoughts escape a person's mind and are shared in the society, and they face no backlash, they think they wouldn't face any consequences even if they acted on those thoughts. If we let a celebrity get away with running a campaign against the women (in case you didn't know, Meesha isn't the only one who came forward with the allegations) who have exposed him, then we will be setting a terrible example. And as far as bad examples go, we are quite the expert. Let's hope for a different outcome this time. As for the proof of harassment, someone rightly said in a tweet that if we don't ask for proof of blasphemy, which is easier to obtain, then we shouldn't be asking for the proof of harassment, which is impossible to prove in most cases.